When Random Jibberish is riding in a time machine way far into the future...

Tweet from ex-Quakes intern:

Dearest mother —
Basic training continues to progress. While my sidearm is operating illustriously, Gen. Reich has determined the uncomfortable baby-cow portion of my leg needs rest. Please, do not fret. However, I shall command the planned Bison men skirmish from afar.
— Andrew

— Capt. Andrew Luck (@CaptAndrewLuck) July 30, 2019

 

Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight thinks it's not Orwellian for the New York Times to change the news it reports to conform to what its subscribers want to hear, regardless of reality.

LOL, imagine a world where subscriber-based businesses are responsive to their subscribers, it's not fucking Orwell bro. https://t.co/qTcWOVp3Uz

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 6, 2019

Science. Data. We bow before you Supreme One.

 

I had no idea what this was about so I had to look it up...

Apparently Trump's (currently the President of the United States) constant stream of xenophobic and racist rhetoric got 22 people murdered by one of his many white supremacist fanboys, and xenophobe and white supremacist Tucker Carlson said on white supremacist state television Fox News that white supremacy is a "hoax"

Tucker Carlson: White supremacy is "actually not a real problem in America." Calling white supremacy and issue is "a hoax" and "a conspiracy theory used to divide the country" pic.twitter.com/ydzmJ0L7UI

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) August 7, 2019

and had on Mark Penn

" 'I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values.' Penn proposed targeting Obama's 'lack of American roots.' "

— Sir Stasis, the Sturm Brightblade of Rhetoric (@MikeRTrice) August 6, 2019

to criticize a news company changing a headline (something that happens all the time, for various reasons), and Trump who is the leader of the current US administration where dozens of employees have ties to Fox News and with him Trump has a circular "human centipede" relationship saw this and tweeted about it

..”This is an astounding development in journalism. I’ve never seen it happen before, I’ve just never seen anything like this! Is that journalism today? I don’t think so!” Mark Penn, Former Clinton Advisor. @TuckerCarlson After 3 years I almost got a good headline from the Times!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2019

and... what part of this is Orwellian again? Has anyone actually read Orwell?

Isn't that the inverse of 1984?

— Tiff_Maples 🌺 (@makledes) August 6, 2019

 

And you obviously still don't.

Quite apart from the underlying partisan back-and-forth, and substantive political positions, a news organization that changes a truthful headline merely to appease a mob is no longer a credible news organization, but a craven and corrupt one.

Unlike you, I'm not making a political commentary. I'm commenting on the abdication of American journalism. This is just the latest example.

 

Great July but terrible August!

 

And you still don't.

Quite apart from the underlying partisan back-and-forth, and substantive political positions, a news organization that changes a truthful headline merely to appease a mob is no longer a credible news organization, but a craven and corrupt one.

 

Daaaammmmmn, Joe Biden isn't f'ing around.

"His vacant-eyed mouthing of the words written for him condemning white supremacists this week I don't believe fooled anyone." #WednesdayWisdom pic.twitter.com/EuBrbWfgRt

— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly 🌸 (@AynRandPaulRyan) August 7, 2019

Apparently it fooled quite a few people, actually... or those people are just being disingenuous... maybe some are white supremacists themselves, or just fine with white supremacy. Who even knows anymore.

 

'Machete' to the rescue: Actor Danny Trejo helps save child trapped in overturned car in Sylmar
Actor Danny Trejo got the chance to play hero on Wednesday when he helped rescue a young child trapped in an overturned car in Sylmar.

Actor Danny Trejo saves a trapped baby from an overturned car
One of Hollywood's best-known villains, Danny Trejo, came to the rescue of a baby that was trapped in an overturned vehicle in Los Angeles.



Save Baby Trapped in Overturned Car
Trejo explained that he, along with another bystander, pulled the baby safely from the totaled vehicle.

 

So what. The Times got it wrong to begin with. Considering the avalanche of lies that spew out of El Presidente's mouth and twitter feed you can't take anything he says at face value. Did he utter those words? Yes? Was he sincere about what he said? Hardly. Did it look like another one of those hostage videos that his staff convinces him he has to make? Certainly. That should have been the story.

 

Trump is not the first President to (regularly) read from a prepared text. And he is not the first to (regularly) lie while in office.

It's not the job of a journalist reporting the news to evaluate in a news story whether or not the President was sincere in what he said. That can be done in an editorial, on a separate page clearly marked to denote opinion content.

If the new standard is that journalists are allowed to peer into the President's mind and heart to devine what he is really thinking and feeling, then we are in a bad place. If on the other hand, this is not a new standard, but a special standard simply because the media hates Trump, then we are also in a bad place. It is thoroughly unprofessional and corrosive of our democracy. And the longer this shit goes on, the less likely the media will ever regain their credibility.

 

News organizations exist to produce a product that will be purchased by customers and supported by advertizers, thus increasing shareholders' value. You are both apparently laboring under the misapprehension that news outlets are some sort of public utility...

 

If that is how the mainstream media regard themselves, as merely a-professional purveyors of products without any associated ethical obligations (and certainly that is how Nate Silver regards them because he said so in his tweet), then they deserve no special regard and all the opprobrium that descends upon them as the "Enemy of the People" for their "Fake News."

Lawyers have professional ethical obligations. Doctors do, as well. So, too, do those who pretend to call themselves journalists.

 

Doctors and lawyers are required to submit to a state board for a license to practice their occupation. I am not aware that there are any minimum standards or licenses required to be a journalist, so the comparison is inapt.

 

I stand by my statement that journalists have ethical obligations.

https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp​

Whether or not journalists are subject to professional discipline for failure to follow them, ethical rules governing their supposed profession still exist.

Moreover, the absence of formal professional disciplinary mechanisms is an argument for more vigorous defamation laws. And if journalists persist in disclaiming ethics, the law is likely to evolve accordingly.

 

Remember, thought, that the term "journalist" itself is not well-defined. By virtue of providing original content to BigSoccer, for example, I could claim to be a journalist and nobody could effectively dispute that claim...

 

That’s a lot of politics in a soccer thread.
Back to soccer discussions, please.

 

I might have to start watching this season's Hard Knocks.

Raiders’ WR Antonio Brown had a two-hour hearing today with league officials regarding whether he will be allowed to wear his old helmet; his NFL future could be riding on it.

Updated story: https://t.co/kuyGi4xMPi

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 9, 2019

 

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/anna...76184&cndid=51759317&esrc=&utm_term=TNY_Daily